EESTI FOTOKUNSTIMESS 2014
PHOTOGRAPHIC ART FAIR 2014

Arne Maasik

Alongside Jüri Okas, Arne Maasik could probably be considered one of the fathers of conceptual architectural photography in Estonia. Influenced by traditional Modernist architectural photography, Maasik carries the gene of metaphysics within him, which manifests itself in its purest form on his “Pusades” (Tangles) – the bare tangles of branches that cover the whole surface of the photograph. These are influential to the point, where they seem to inevitably define the way Maasik’s series of urban photography (the series “Chicago” for example) is interpreted. It is not a question of juxtaposing nature and civilisation, but of the universal primal metaphysics that subconsciously rule over the whole world.

Maasik also took the photographs in the book “Orthodox churches, monasteries and chapels in Estonia”. It was probably during this project that the material for the series displayed here was collected, but in their current form the photographs have no documentary value. Maasik is not interested in how the sacral spatial programme articulated in texts and traditions has been expressed in specific cases, but the metaphysical nature of that programme, which he hopes to discover in geometric repetitions.

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